Viewpoint
by obsession x a million
Summary: Ever wonder what Gale felt about watching Katniss in the Hunger Games, or what Rue thought during it all? What would a Gamemaker make of the Girl on Fire? Drabble Anthology exploring different character points of view, along with some fun crack fics!
1. Onlooker

**Onlooker**

I watch as Katniss uses that jagged knife to saw through the tree branch. No doubt about it, those are tracker jackers. Claudius and Cesar are having a field day talking about how lethal those things are, and all I can think about is their proximity to Katniss as she saws through the branch.

She winces, and without realizing it, I do too. One of them must have stung her. She seems to waver for a second before continuing to saw through the branch. Suddenly the knife seems to make it all the way through the branch, and I watch as Katniss shoves it as far from her as she can as the nest falls to the ground, crashing to the ground as a giant boulder might crash through the surface of a lake.

And it's mayhem. The nest bursts, and the swarm is everywhere. The Careers on the ground are running, screaming about the lake. Two of them don't make it. The blond from District 1 shrieks and becomes almost unrecognizable as the tracker jackers overcome her. She falls to the ground, twitching.

Seconds later, Katniss falls to the ground. She manages to stumble over to the little pool nearby, where she waits for five minutes. There's no sign of the other Careers. Her neck and her cheek are swollen, oozing some sort of green pus. I grit my teeth as she slowly makes her way towards the blond's disfigured body just as the cannon fires.

She stumbles, grasping for something… The bow! She reaches for the bow, but suddenly falls back to the ground, a look of horror etched on her face. She gathers herself and manages to grab a hold of the bow, but she looks unsteady, and I know that I'm clenching my fists so hard that my fingernails are leaving marks on my palm.

Katniss lurches back to her knees, but suddenly makes a grab for an arrow. Why? The camera pans over to where several figures make their way back towards the clearing. The Careers! _C'mon, Katniss, move it!_ I silently urge.

The boy from District 12 – Peeta? – crashes through the trees. If he kills her… But no, he shouts at her, "What are you doing here? Are you mad? Get up! Get up!" He pushes up her up to her feet. "Run!" he screams. "Run!"

Behind him, Cato cuts his way through to the clearing, wielding that huge sword. Katniss suddenly bolts, swaying and tripping as she crashes through the brush, but she manages to make it a good distance away before she trips into a small pit. She curls up, and she mouths one word.

Claudius and Cesar make speculations as to what she said, but they are wrong. They give up as the camera pans back to the other tributes, but I can't help thinking back to Katniss as she lies in that pit. Because I know that before she lost consciousness, she mouthed one thing and one thing only: my name, "Gale." And closing my eyes to stop them from watering, I turn away from the screen.

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A/N: Hi there, readers! So my goal is just to explore "The Hunger Games" from different points of view, so if you have any good suggestions, feel free to let me know. I am taking prompts and suggestions. Please review and let me know your thoughts!


	2. Unexpected

**Unexpected**

I know I'm glowering, but I just can't help it. I know what message Haymitch has been trying to send me, but I can't do it, even if the sponsors are watching. This is just not something that I am equipped to deal with. I let out a small huff of frustration as I glance at Peeta.

Peeta, who is now lying unconscious on the ground. Yep, there's the shiner blooming darkly on his left eye. I suppose it wasn't exactly fair to punch him when he wasn't expecting it, especially now that we are on the same team. After all, now there's only Cato, Foxface, and the two of us left in the 74th Annual Hunger Games. But what did he expect me to say?

I shake my head, thinking of the events that had transpired a few minutes ago.

"Katniss," Peeta said. "We need to split up. I know I'm chasing away the game."

_Stomping on every small twig will do that. _"Only because your leg's hurt," I say generously.

"I know," he says. "So, why don't you go on? Show me some plants to gather and that way we'll both be useful."

Despite my best efforts, Peeta will not be swayed into playing lookout from the safety of a tall tree. After a few minutes of debating, I teach him some roots to dig up. We're fast running out of food.

"And what about these? Can we eat those?" he says, crouching very close to me. I look up at him, and, remembering Haymitch's messages, paste on a smile as I hand him a root.

"Yes, Peeta. I already told you we can." I shake my head, still smiling.

When I begin to stand up, Peeta catches my hand, and I crouch back down, my other hand going to the bow on my back.

"What's wrong?" I whisper, completely on edge.

"I have one more question," he says. I wait for a minute as he reaches behind him. He pulls out a small root that's been twined into a small circle. It's almost small enough to be…

"Will you marry me, Katniss Everdeen?" he says. That's when I punched him, straight in the eye, and he's somehow knocked out cold. I'm so angry I'm trembling.

And now here I am, waiting for him to come to so we can continue on with our foraging and hunting. I know I'm glowering, but I just can't help it. A small silver parachute suddenly drifts down. It holds a small box. I pull the box open, not really knowing what to expect, but it's certainly not this.

In the box is a small, simple yet beautiful gold ring. I can just hear Haymitch now saying, "Oh, just run with it, will ya, sweetheart?" Dear, dear Haymitch – we are going to have to sit down and talk about this as soon as me and my "fiancé" get out of here. Now if only he would wake up…


	3. Run

**Run**

"There's food if you know how to find it. You just have to know where to look."

His big hand comes down on my shoulder, clasping lightly, as we squat in the forest, looking at some deer tracks. I glance up at my father to see him concentrating on the tracks. He absentmindedly takes his other hand and brings them close to the tracks, but he's mindful enough not to touch them. He looks at me, squeezes my shoulder one more time, and then stands up from our crouched positions.

"Come on, Katniss, let's see if we can't find this deer," my father says as he grabs the bow leaning against a tree trunk. I nod and hop up, following him. As we quietly stalk through the woods, making sure to crumple leaves every once in a while near our faces to hide our scents, I stare at the bow slung over my father's shoulder. It's a rarity here in District 12. My father is the only one who can make them, and if it wasn't for the officials, we could make a much better living selling them.

Unfortunately, because of those same officials, he would definitely be publicly executed if it were known he can make these, and that we sometimes sneak past the fence to hunt. That would be a much safer occupation than mining coal, but he doesn't have much choice.

"Katniss!" he whispers. I blink and come out of my thoughts, instantly crouching somewhat as I near my father, who has stopped. He slowly points towards something. "Look."

I look up and see the doe. She's almost entirely hidden behind the foliage, but she brings her head up as her ears twitch. My father carefully brings the bow up, grabbing an arrow from his pack. I watch mesmerized as he strings the arrow, bringing it up…

Just as he's about to shoot, the deer bolts. My father quickly and efficiently runs after it, and though it's probably a wasted effort now that the deer knows we're here, he keeps the string taut and ready to let the arrow fly.

"Run, Dad! Run!" I holler after him, now running too. It's unlikely that we will catch anything after all the noise we're making, but when I catch up to my father, we're both laughing, and we don't even care. He puts the bow down and swings me up over his shoulder, and I squeal. We quiet down after a few moments, a few hiccupping laughs lingering.

"Not quite, Dad," I say as we stand up.

He smiles at me. "Well, now you know what not to do if you're after a deer. Maybe one day when I'm not around you'll be able to bring down a deer without your noisy old Dad."

He starts walking away but pauses when he realizes I'm not following. "Katniss?"

I take a few steps toward him. "Don't ever leave me, Dad."

He smiles and wraps me up in a huge hug for a minute before speaking. "You know I would never purposefully leave you. If something ever did happen, you have to promise to be strong for me, okay?"

He kneels down to my level, and after I nod, he hugs me one more time. "Now come on," he says. "Let's get these squirrels home to your mother and Prim."

We walk back towards our house after stowing away his prized bow and arrows, a father and daughter illegally hunting in the District 12 woods for the last time.

The next day there is a huge explosion in the mines. It shakes the entire district and it's smoky for days. For the next five years, I will still wake up screaming for him to run.

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A/N: Please review, and if you have a prompt, I'd love to hear about it!


	4. Bored

**Bored**

"Hey, I just met you… And this is craaazy!"

Sure, he was supposed to be looking for that District 12 chick, but she was obviously pretty well hidden. So here he was, swiping away at the brush with his awesome sword as he marched through the woods, and to be honest, it was pretty boring. The Hunger Games weren't supposed to be boring, now were they?

"But here's my number, so call me maybe."

He stomped through the bushes and into a clearing, where he momentarily paused in his singing to look around. After not seeing anything, he decided it would probably be safer to trudge around the outside of the clearing. After a second of walking along the tree line, he suddenly scowled. Cato was not going to be afraid of any of those other weaklings competing in the Hunger Games, and he knew that he only had to call for help if he wanted Clove or Marvel or any of the other Careers to aid him. They were probably pretty close by, looking for that stupid girl on fire and the dying lover-boy.

Cato smirked as he started across the clearing. He opened his mouth and continued his singing, not a care in the world. The boy from District 12 was dying, they had killed many of the others, and they had all the food they could possibly want safely guarded by hidden mines near the Cornucopia. Sure, they had lost Glimmer, which had been somewhat annoying, but he was going to have to kill her eventually anyway. Cato shrugged as he continued forward.

"Before you came into my life, I missed you so bad! I missed you so bad! I missed you so sad bad!"

He continued singing until he reached the other side of the clearing. What a new song; he just couldn't seem to get it out of his head. As he reached the end, he stopped walking and threw his hands out to either side, striking a pose as he yelled out, "So call me maybe!"

After a few seconds of silence, during which Cato imagined how all of the beautiful Capitol women were surely swooning in their seats, a voice suddenly floated to his ears, effectively knocking him out of his reverie. "Cato? Um, what are you doing?"

Cato looked up and locked eyes with Clove. She was looking at him like he'd grown another head, and she was fingering one of her knives. Without realizing it, the back of his neck suddenly heated up, and he knew that he had to salvage the situation. He quickly dropped his song-stopping pose and adopted a more imposing, threatening stance as he glared at her.

"What, Clove? Why are you just standing there like a waste of space, huh? We need to be looking for that stupid District 12 girl! Get to work!" he roared at her. She jumped slightly when he yelled, but realizing that this was Cato and that he had not gone crazy, Clove merely nodded her head and darted off in search of the girl on fire.

Once Clove was gone, Cato let out a breath he didn't even know he'd been holding. Well, at least he wasn't bored anymore.

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	5. High Score

**High Score**

"You can go," Crane says dismissively, already turning away from the blond boy who has spent the last fifteen minutes throwing weights around. A woman with teal-toned skin and an uppity pink hair-do - Agrippa - turns to me.

"What did you think of him? Sturdy little thing, isn't he?" she says.

I yawn. I've probably had too much wine. These private sessions tend to drag on after a while, and after 23 of them I'm ready to go home. Generally the later districts are not quite as interesting as their earlier counterparts. That boy from District 2 sure looks like a monster with his sword fighting, as does the girl from his district with her knives. There are rarely surprises, although District 11 made a better showing than usual this year; perhaps that large boy will make it far into the games with his strength and stoicism.

"Cassian?" Agrippa prompts, and I lazily throw one arm in the air.

"That boy? A 7 at best," I tell her.

"Really? I think he'll do a bit better than that. And look there. Here comes the last one and we can finally retire."

The girl from District 12 walks into the room. I remember her from her first fiery appearance in the chariot procession. Her hair is braided back, and she walks standing tall, unafraid, cool, calculating. She seems to study us for a minute, gauging the Gamemakers that will soon be judging her, before walking over to the archery station.

I lean forward in my seat slightly. Now this is interesting. She hasn't touched the bow and arrow before this during the group training sessions, and the only one who really seems to have any small shred of talent with archery was the girl from District 1, whose shooting was poor and erratic at best. I glance to my side to see Agrippa and the other Gamemakers are also now watching her.

The girl strings the bow. She looks like she knows what she is doing, but when she lets the arrow loose, she misses the dummy by a couple of inches. I sigh and lean back into my seat, mentally willing Crane to end this session so that we can go home. I've seen enough.

"Who brought this? Who brought this year, huh?" I turn around as I notice everyone huddle around a succulent looking pig that has just been brought him. My stomach suddenly growls, and I stand up and walk toward the pig. Perhaps it will be good to get some food into my stomach to accompany that wine.

Behind me I hear a small _whoomp_ in the gymnasium, but I'm too intent to try some of this pig that I ignore it. A few seconds later, I hear a sparking noise, and at this I begin to turn until Agrippa, who has sidled up next to me, speaks. "This sure looks good, and I'm famished."

I nod absently. Agrippa starts forward, when suddenly an arrow flies right between us and through the apple in the mouth of the pig, pinning it the wall. Shocked, I spin around and see the girl getting up from her crouch and hanging the bow at her side. Next to me, Agrippa and a few other Gamemakers sputter with astonishment.

The girl suddenly speaks, her voice ringing loudly and clearly. "Thank you for your consideration." With that, she takes a slight bow, puts her arrow and bow back, and exits the gymnasium.

"How dare she? That little –" Agrippa begins, but I'm too busy studying the rest of the arena. The rope holding up the practice dummy has been severed, causing the fallen dummy to spill sand all over the floor. Above us, one of the hanging light fixtures is sparking, an arrow still sticking out of it. I spin around and note that the apple is still pinned to the wall, an arrow straight through the middle.

"And that, my friends," Crane says as the rest of us face him, "is how a tribute garners a high score. Now let us eat and settle on the grades."

As we turn toward the pig for a fine meal, I can't help but think I will have to keep my eye on that girl from District 12.

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	6. Viewpoint

**Viewpoint**

I freeze as I suddenly hear loud footsteps running toward the tree I'm currently resting in; whomever these belong to surely doesn't care about being quiet. I climb a little bit higher and hear more footsteps following, loud and obviously in pursuit of the first set.

I still as I hear the first set closing in on my clearing, and suddenly the girl from District 12 – Katniss – sprints through the brush and looks around for a minute. She spots another high tree near mine, and instantly scurries up.

She's about twenty feet up when another six people enter the clearing. They circle her tree for a minute, grinning and snarling as they look up Katniss. Surprisingly, I notice that the boy from District 12 is there too. He remains a bit further back than the others, but he's definitely a part of this alliance. Why else would he be with them?

Katniss has stopped climbing. She suddenly calls down, "How's everything with you?" I have to stop myself from giggling aloud.

The monstrous boy from District 2 calls back, "Well enough. Yourself?"

"It's been a bit warm for my taste," Katniss replies. She pauses for a minute before continuing, "The air's better up here. Why don't you come up?"

"Think I will," he responds before having a hurried conversation with the District 1 girl and then attempting to climb the tree.

I can tell the second he starts up that he doesn't know what he's doing, and he's never going to reach her. She's obviously climbed trees before, but he doesn't know where to put his hands and feet, what branches to grab onto. Katniss starts climbing again, and after a few minutes, there's a sudden _snap _as the District 2 boy falls to the ground.

He curses, and the boy from District 12 says something about leaving Katniss up there for the night. I look back at Katniss. She slowly moves down to a fork and starts pulling things out of a pack. A sleeping bag? Her movements are a little jerky, almost like she's in pain. I look back down at the tributes on the ground. They're getting ready to settle in for the night.

When I look back at Katniss, my eyes are suddenly drawn to something above her head. From my viewpoint, I can still see the large mass hanging on the branch, swaying slightly in the wind. That's a tracker jacker nest if I've ever seen one. I look back down at Katniss.

I back off a little bit. I should just go to a different tree, somewhere far away from this clearing. If those wasps wake up, Katniss is going to die, and maybe some of the tributes on the ground along with her.

_But she's nice_, a small part of my mind thinks. Is she nice? I haven't talked to her. She seemed to accept my presence during the training, but we haven't actually interacted yet. But she volunteered for her sister, and I think she must be a good person. Maybe she would want to form an alliance.

That is, if she survives. I climb back into my previous position and stare at her. I wait for a few minutes until she looks in my direction. At first she doesn't seem to realize we are staring right into each other's eyes, but she suddenly sits up straighter, and I know that she has recognized me.

After a minute of holding her gaze, I slowly raise up a hand, making sure not to rustle even a single leaf, and point toward the nest above her head. Slowly, her eyes the line of my finger and I know that she's seen the nest. While she's looking at it, I melt back into the tree as quietly as I can. Perhaps she can see from my point of view that there's not much else I can do for her. Hopefully I've helped in some way. The mockingjays sing lullabies, and slowly I drift into a light sleep, safe in the crook of my tree.

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A/N: Remember to leave a review either letting me know how I'm doing, or if you have any suggestions for more prompts :)


	7. Manners

****A/N: Thanks for the reviews, dear readers! And a special shout-out to **Daniella Violet Moon** who gave me quite a few prompts. The next two chapters actually came from that, so thanks again. Remember if you have a suggestion, I'd love to try my hand at it. Happy reading!

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**Manners**

"Up, up, up! It's going to be a big, big, big day!" I hear Effie calling into Katniss' apartment to wake her up. I rub my hand over my eyes to rub out the last remnants of sleep as I enter the dining car. Haymitch is already in there, his face puffy and red from yesterday's indulgences.

He looks up when I enter and he nods. He probably doesn't remember all of it, but there must be some part of him that remembers me taking care of him last night after he lay in a pool of his own vomit.

"_Ya know, 's pointless anyways," he slurred. _

_I threw his soiled clothing in a corner for the Capitol's cronies to take care of later. "What's that?" I ask him quietly._

"_Trying to win, to stay alive. 's the same thing ev'ry year," he starts mumbling incoherently. I shake my head, trying not to let his words get to me. He grasps the front of my shirt. "Thank you," he says before he passes out, surprising me with his sudden politeness._

Effie walks into the dining car. "Good morning, Peeta!" she says brightly as she walks toward the coffee pot.

I give her a half-wave before I sit down. A servant places a cup of something hot in front of me, but it looks too opaque to be tea. I hesitantly try a sip; it's delicious. I take another gulp, and even though it's burning as it goes down my throat, I find I can't stop drinking this.

Effie scolds me, "Slow down, Peeta! For goodness sake! Slurping is so rude."

"What is this?" I ask her, nearly finished with my cup.

"Tha's hort chorcorlate," Haymitch says after biting into a pastry, his mouth full of food.

Effie makes a face. "Haymitch! Swallow your food before talking! The lack of manners in this car is disgusting!" she shrills.

Haymitch belches loudly. Effie stamps her foot, fuming. A servant brings me another hot chocolate and I sip it, slowly this time, watching the two adults.

"Some mentor you are. You have a lot to learn about pleasing people!" she points at him.

Haymitch snorts and smiles slyly. "Funny, isn't that what I told you the other night when we were –"

"You are so crude! You no-good, dirty bas-" Effie has stomped over to Haymitch at this point and is pushing her finger into his chest. He grabs her hand.

"Now Effie, we wouldn't want Peeta here getting the wrong idea, would we? Please, try to remember your manners," he leers at her. I feel really uncomfortable, so I quickly drain the rest of my hot chocolate. Haymitch suddenly leans down and whispers something in Effie's ear, and her face suddenly matches the same hue of pink as her hair.

Effie looks like she is about to rip her hair out, and Haymitch is grinning at her, when suddenly the door opens. Katniss steps into the dining cart wearing her green outfit, and Effie walks away from Haymitch and brushes past Katniss with her cup of black coffee. She mutters obscenities under her breath, and Haymitch chuckles. I grab a roll, somewhat embarrassed by what just happened.

"Sit down! Sit down!" Haymitch says, waving Katniss over, and I am glad that all this talk of manners is done for the time being.

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	8. Tune Out

******Tune Out**

You need that backpack if you want to survive, and you know it. These games are disgusting, an atrocity to the human race, but you've become numb to the killing. You used to just be a quiet, dignified guy who stuck to yourself, but you took satisfaction in working with your family and friends in the orchards back home. Even though the work was hard, at least you had people in your life that you cared about, and who cared about you.

You reach the clearing of the Cornucopia. Two of the backpacks are already gone, and the two backpacks left have the numbers "2" and "11" imprinted on them. Eleven. You need that backpack, and maybe with it you can win this godforsaken bloodbath and make it back home. There would be more food for your district, then, and you could see your family again.

You run to the backpacks but slow when you suddenly hear a girl's voice talking. "To kill you. Just like we did your pathetic little ally… what was her name? The one who hopped around in the trees? Rue? Well, first Rue, then you, and then I think we'll just let nature take care of Lover Boy. How does that sound? … Now, where to start?"

You suddenly see red. You might be numb to killing other tributes at this point, but how dare this girl talk about Rue's death as if it were a game? She was a child, and she didn't deserve that. You change direction and sprint in the direction of the voice.

You round the Cornucopia and you see the girl from District 2 has pinned down the girl from District 12. The girl from 2 is holding the knife close to the other girl's face. "All right then. Let's get started," she says, smiling sadistically.

You barrel towards them, still enraged by what this girl has said about the smaller girl from District 11 – who was your friend, who used to fly from tree to tree dropping fruits for the Harvest as you caught them under her with a large basket – and you forcefully yank up the larger girl.

She screams. You hold her a foot above the ground, and she gasps, hanging like a rag doll. You flip her around and fling her onto the ground. You're so angry, and you roar at her, "What'd you do that little girl? You kill her?"

The girl from District 2 scrambles backward, crawling on all fours as she tries to get away. "No! No, it wasn't me!"

You pick up a large rock and stalk toward her, lowly growling, "You said her name. I heard you. You kill her?" Your face contorts with rage and pain and everything you thought you had blocked out in the past few days. "You cut her up like you were going to cut up this girl here?"

"No! No, I –" the girl stops talking as she notices the stone in your hand. If anything, her inability to tell you what happened to Rue just enrages you more. She panics and screams, "Cato! Cato!"

"Clove!" a voice answers in the distance, but he is too far away. This girl is going to die. She's had it coming, and you're doing it for Rue.

You bring the rock down hard against her skull, and with a sickening _crunch_ she crumples, head bashed in and yet still moaning. You tune it out; you have to tune it out if you want to survive these sick games.

You suddenly remember the other girl. You whirl around, and she's still sitting on the ground looking stunned. You glare at her, but you're curious about one thing, so you ask her, "What'd she mean? About Rue being your ally?"

"I – I – we teamed up. Blew up the supplies. I tried to save her, I did. But he got there first. District One," she says.

"And you killed him?" you demand, watching her carefully to gauge whether or not she is lying.

"Yes. I killed him. And buried her in flowers." She pauses for a minute, getting a faraway look before she quietly murmurs, "And I sang her to sleep."

In the background you think you hear the girl from District 2 moan again, but you ignore her. Instead, you're almost surprised by how this other girl has helped Rue. Maybe not everyone has forsaken their humanity. "To sleep?" you gruffly ask.

"To death. I sang until she died. Your district… they sent me bread." You suddenly think of the crescent-shaped bread sprinkled with seeds, and you realize they wouldn't have sent her such a gift if she hadn't done Rue an extraordinary service. She bows her head and says, "Do it fast, okay, Thresh?"

For the first time during these games, you're conflicted. You want to win, to survive, but you can't completely tune out the compassion you feel for this girl who has helped Rue. You lower your rock and point it at the girl, almost threateningly, before saying, "Just this one time, I let you go. For the little girl. You and me, we're even then. No more owed. You understand?"

She nods, and you're both silent for a moment. Suddenly a voice shouts, "Clove!" and he sounds much closer than before.

You look back at the girl on the ground. "You better run now, Fire Girl," you say, and then you sprint toward the two backpacks. You grab them both, and you figure that maybe keeping the District 2 boy from his pack will give you an advantage. When you look back at the girl from District 12, she is sprinting in the other direction, and you allow yourself one grim smile before you tune out your feelings and let go of your humanity once more.

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	9. Outfoxed

A/N: Thanks again to **DVM **for some excellent prompts :) I really appreciate it! Remember, anyone who's interested can submit couples, characters, and themes and I'd love to try my hand at it. Enjoy these next two!

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**Outfoxed**

She has watched them for a few days, and she knows what they've done. That was pretty smart of the boy from District 3 to deactivate and rearm those mines, but she guesses that's what happens when you come from the district where they make explosives like that.

Unlike her. She's from District 5, and there isn't anything too special about that. In fact, she only got a 5 during her private training session, and the Gamemakers clearly didn't think much of her in the first place, but she doesn't care. She knows she can survive this; she just has to outsmart them all.

She waits for the perfect opportunity, only stealing a little bit of food here and there, but never enough to arouse suspicions. This is how you stay under the radar in the Hunger Games. She knows what they say: keep your friends close, and your enemies closer. She waits right under their noses for the time when…

A pillar of smoke rises in the distance. She perks up a little and watches the Careers around the food scramble into action. The boy from District 2 barks out orders and thrusts a spear into the hands of the boy from District 3. The rest of them run off, towards the smoke, and she waits for a minute before making her move.

There! Now! The boy from District 3 is facing the other direction, and she runs from the woods quickly and stealthily. Just before she reaches the circle of supplies around the pyramid, she stops, searches the ground, and carefully places her feet on a spot. Then she approaches the pyramid with a series of little hops, always careful to land on one foot in a very distinct spot. At one point, she overshoots slightly, and gives a small squeal as she careens forward.

She freezes. Nothing happens. She regains her feet quickly and continues hopping forward until she reaches the supplies. She takes small handfuls of food here and there, and her gaze darts around, still checking the progress of the boy from District 3 who still seems not to have noticed. She suddenly darts back toward the woods after she gets what she needs.

She runs away from the clearing, but as she does she swivels slightly, and sees the girl from District 12 move slightly toward the pyramid with a bow and arrow in hand. Curious, the girl from District 5 backs off but waits a few minutes, wondering what the Girl on Fire plans to do.

That girl sets off the mines. There is a huge explosion, and the girl from District 5 is blown back slightly. She scrambles away to a hiding spot, knowing that the Careers will surely be back soon, but she watches as the girl from District 12 scrambles away, clutching the side of her head as though her ear is wounded.

And the girl from District 5 thinks to herself that she must be careful, because if there is anyone who can outfox her, it's that girl from District 12, and that just wouldn't do.

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	10. Sparkles

**Sparkles**

You're the sexy one, the one that gets the crowd going and gets the boys excited. You're the one who has to make fighting look like some hot girl fight, with a bend in the hip there and an exposure of your neck here.

You're the one that's supposed to make alliances not only thanks to your district, but also thanks to your looks. Most people starve because they don't have enough food; you starve because it's so much better to look tall and lush and skinny enough to make even those ugly tribute uniforms look attractive.

You're the one who Cato instantly looks at when you are all put together for the first time. And he says to you, "District 1?" And you nod, smile coyly, and bat your glittery eyelashes. And everything about you says District 1, as your costume twinkles, and your eyes are dazzling, and your laugh is bright.

You literally shine.

When you walk onto the stage for your interview with Caesar, flouncing and smiling in your see-through gold gown, you turn the sexy up a notch and flirt with all you've got. And three minutes later when you're walking away, you notice the eyes of most boys following you off the stage as Marvel enters.

In the arena, you know how to fight thanks to some basic training, but you're lucky that you're in an alliance with skilled fighters like Cato and Clove, who are almost inhuman in their ability to kill. During the bloodbath at the Cornucopia, you pick up the most eye-catching weapon there: the bow and arrows. You aren't that great with them, but if they draw the eye then they must be meant for you.

You flirt with Cato, and you laugh when you kill a girl for lighting a fire on the first night. How very stupid of her, you think, but you don't have time to think superficial thoughts of sadness for her. You need to make yourself invaluable to Cato so he won't kill you until everyone else is gone, and then maybe you can stand a chance fighting him one-on-one somehow.

A few days pass, and you're still alive. In fact, things are looking promising because the so-called Girl on Fire is stuck up a tree, wounded, and you're safe on the ground cuddled up to Cato. You dream of pretty gems that sparkle when you hold them up to the light like Daddy used to, and how captivating their glittery shell is. You want to sparkle like that too, and your mother says, "Work hard, Glimmer, and you can." And you think of home, until all of a sudden you wake up to the sound of buzzing.

Buzzing? And there is a swarm of wasps around you. You scream, and feel stings everywhere on your body. You can't get away, and you call uselessly for help. Anyone?

You fall, twitching, and suddenly it doesn't hurt anymore. You look up and see sparkles of light floating upwards, and a light coming closer to you, a gleam of something better than this godforsaken battlefield. You twitch one more time, and step into the light. You may have not won the Hunger Games, but there is a glimmer of hope that there's something better on the other side.

* * *

A/N: Yeah, it's a little angsty, sorry. For some reason, I just love Glimmer. I feel like I would be super into a longer fic about her and Cato, so if anyone has seen good ones like that, let me know and I'd love to read. Maybe I'll write one sometime? Anyways, read and review and make this author really happy :)


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